most

Multiple Entries:
  most    -most    many    much  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
most/məʊst/

▶determiner & pronoun

• 1 greatest in amount or degree.

• 2 the majority of; nearly all of.

▶adverb

• 1 to the greatest extent.

• 2 forming the superlative of adjectives and adverbs, especially those of more than one syllable.

• 3 extremely; very.

• 4 N. Amer. informal almost.

– phrases
at (the) most not more than.
be the most informal be the best of all.
for the most part in most cases; usually.
make the most of use or represent to the best advantage.

– origin OE māst, of Gmc origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
-most

▶suffix forming superlative adjectives and adverbs from prepositions and other words indicating relative position: innermost.

– origin OE -mest, assimilated to most.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
many/ˈmeni/

▶determiner, pronoun, & adjective (more, most) a large number of. ▶noun (as pl. n. the many) the majority of people.

– phrases
a good (or great) many a large number.
many a —— a large number of.

– derivatives
manyfold adverb & adjective.

– origin OE manig, of Gmc origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
much/mʌtʃ/

▶determiner & pronoun (more, most) a large amount. ▶adverb

• 1 to a great extent; a great deal.

• 2 [usu. with neg. or in questions] for a large part of one's time; often.

– phrases
a bit much informal somewhat excessive or unreasonable.
(as) much as even though.
not much of a not a good example of: I'm not much of a gardener.
so much the better (or worse) that is even better (or worse).
too much too difficult or exhausting to tolerate.

– derivatives
muchly adverb (humorous).

– origin ME: shortened from muchel, from OE micel (see mickle).